A U.S. astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts have safely returned to Earth after spending 167 days in orbit and traveling about 71 million miles in space.
Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore from NASA and Elena Serova and Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) landed in Kazakhstan at about 10:07 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 11.
Recovery teams in Russia are helping the astronauts to adjust to the Earth's gravity after returning from a zero-gravity environment.
Welcome back Elena, Sasha, and #AstroButch. Congratulations for a successful mission. Photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls pic.twitter.com/sLnsEvAEZI
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) March 12, 2015
The three astronauts of Expedition 42 arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Nov. 24, 2014. The trio spent more than five months at the space station. "Wilmore now has logged 178 days in space during two missions, the first of which was on space shuttle mission STS-129 in 2009. Samokutyaev now has spent 331 days in space on two flights, the first of which was on Expedition 27/28 in 2011. This was Serova's first flight into space," stated NASA. NASA has released a number of images that show the recovery teams helping the crew members come out of the Soyuz spacecraft. The images also show the trio sitting in their space suits and waving to photographers.
#AstroButch has worked with the Zero-G 3D Printer the most on ISS & we'll miss having him on board. Welcome back! pic.twitter.com/cZ50SK3jOv — Made In Space (@MadeInSpace) March 12, 2015
The ISS is now housed by Expedition 43 members: Commander Terry Virts from NASA, Anton Shkaplerov from ROSCOSMOS and Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti from the European Space Agency (ESA). The trio are expected to stay on board the ISS to continue their maintenance and research until other crew members of Expedition 43 arrive at the space station.
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko are scheduled for launch from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on March 27. Kornienko and Kelly are expected to spend about a year aboard the ISS to help understand how humans can withstand future deep space and prolonged travel in zero-gravity.
Space agencies usually send their astronauts to space for a period of not more than six months. However, Russian cosmonauts have in the past spent around a year at the ISS. Kelly will be the first NASA astronaut to spend the same amount of time at the space station.
